GAUVIN: They’ll be coming ‘round the bend(hoping that their lives won’t end

Written by Paul Gauvin

November 02, 2012

It took 10 years for several public entities like the Town of Barnstable and the Army Corps of Engineers to implement a relatively micro-sized project known as the Stewart’s Creek Culvert. It will take a lot less time to actually do the deed scheduled to begin Dec. 1 and end in about two months.

All it involves is replacing a small culvert running under the road with a larger one that connects the creek to the harbor at the Ocean Avenue curve that runs off Sea Street, Hyannis, toward Hyannis Port.

The project – it will cost less than a half-million dollars - has been in the pipeline for so long that it is now anticlimactic. But what isn’t is the plan for constructing a ribbon of sidewalk along the shore side of Ocean Avenue, a project that has nearby residents making Christmas wishes.

One such is Bill Lord, a semi-retired senior road runner and budding artist. He and his wife, Linda, invited us for coffee and dessert recently where the creek project streamed its way into the pleasantries of neighborly conversation.

Lord has been running regional road races including the daddy of all races, the Boston Marathon, so one would have expected him to wish for a flat enough, wide enough and pre-eminently safe enough sidewalk to accommodate his daily 6-mile gallop that includes the bend in the road.

Personal experience shows that the crook by the creek is a cauldron of close calls. It was part of the course taken by this writer in years gone by to practice for the annual Last Gasp bicycle ride from the canal to P’town. Many were the days one wished Arnold Schwarzenegger could have grasped that bend in both hands, flexed his ample biceps, grunted and straightened it out.

Or, build a path where one could walk, or ride a bike in safety.

On one occasion, a mid-sized pick-up truck going in the same direction around the bend had to move in a little closer to the road’s lagoon side to avoid a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. In the process the mirror on his passenger side clipped the one on this writer’s bicycle. Click! Wobble! Hey!

It gets hairy for auto drivers, too. Tourists unwittingly doing a no-no by riding bikes in tandem suddenly appear often enough just around the bend. But Lord glossed over the safety factor of the proposed new sidewalk that town conservation director Rob Gatewood says will be constructed of weather-resistant board. So it isn’t a sidewalk as we might imagine it after all. It’s a beachy “board” walk.

Lord’s plea to Santa is for the 900-foot long path to have a “bulge” or two, like a deck, say maybe 15 or 20 feet wide to accommodate area artists who could set up their easels and capture the harbor views for posterity. Aside from running, Lord also took up painting a few years ago, and has already festooned the walls of his well-appointed home with his work. It is certainly a cultural idea that works well with the town’s efforts to create an artsy colony.

But, Gatewood says, the boardwalk project is already “designed, permitted and set to go” when the culvert phase is completed after about two months, bringing launch of boardwalk construction to near-spring and ready for summer use.

The entire project has two phases and, appropriately, two responsible agencies. The Army Corps will be in charge of the culvert project and the town’s own Department of Public Works will handle oversight for the boardwalk.

Is bicycle safety being overlooked while the opportunity is there to improve it? “I don’t see why bikers couldn’t ride up on the boardwalk but do it slowly in deference to pedestrians,” Gatewood said. The walkway begins at Sea Street Beach and extends the 900 feet around the bend to the existing sidewalk on the west end where the first house on the beach is located. As to the artists, they can ease off the boardwalk onto the sand and set up their easels, Gatewood said.

Town engineer Roger Parsons has a similar view for different reasons. He says the boardwalk will be six feet wide, enough to accommodate careful navigation by bikers and walkers. There isn’t enough money to make the walk wider to meet the standards for a bike and walking path.

Forget the artistic bulge, too, unless taxpayers want to dig a little deeper into their pockets.

As to bikers around that bend, they can continue living dangerously… unless they take the time to lift their bikes up onto the somewhat elevated boardwalk.